I only ordered one oolong from them, but will definitely order it again: Yunnan Oriental Beauty. A lovely, fruity, mellow oolong, like what black tea wishes it could be, if you left out all of the horrid bitterness. Not too expensive.

debunix wrote:I only ordered one oolong from them, but will definitely order it again: Yunnan Oriental Beauty. A lovely, fruity, mellow oolong, like what black tea wishes it could be, if you left out all of the horrid bitterness. Not too expensive.

There are many good black teas without bitterness. Darjeelings are some of the best in the world and Taiwan's Sun, Moon, Lake black teas can be delicious. Black teas are in their own world, like Puerh. Learning how to brew and select them are the keys like any other tea. Many oolongs can be bitter if not brewed carefully.

I may try some more black teas again in time, but after really enjoying some Yunnan gold, I got bold and bought an ounce each of several black teas from India from Chado--don't remember exactly which one, but they were fancy single estate types, and some a couple of different Keemun samples as well, and basically all ended up composted, because I could not find a way to make them acceptable. This was about the same time I became very frustrated with several green teas and dumped them as well, before I had my breakthrough with sencha and dragon well, so there may be so me black teas in my future, someday.

But right now I have too much good stuff to explore among the greens, and whites, and oolongs, and puerhs, and no real need or desire to work through the teas whose bitterness the inspired centuries of adulteration with milk, etc.

Buying the Indian black teas was probably a mistake if you dislike bitterness...even I can taste bitterness in most Ceylon and Assam black teas and I have a very low bitter sensitivity...

The Keemun´s should have been okay though...I never taste bitter in them...maybe ask Chip which one he likes. Some people complain about Keemun being smokey or bitter which I´ve never detected. We had a bit of a discussion about it here. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13053

If every thing fails, I feed the leaves to my earth worms (They never complain)

I don't drink iced tea, and I do feed used or unloved tea to my earthworms. They seem to love turning tea leaves into compost--the tea leaves are among the fastest things to disappear in the worm bins.

Whoa! It's 90* out side. A glass of iced tea would really be refreshing. Like all of us I start my day with a hot cup of Puerh. (And as it cools to room temp I don't mind) But this time of year I keep a large pitcher of iced tea in the refrig. at all times.

Mom used to make iced tea with Lipton and lots of sugar, horrid stuff. I did try some iced tea last year, a 'cold brew' technique suggested in another forum, wondering if I could improve the bitterness of a particular green tea. It was hideous, and that made me less interested to try it again.